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This past weekend I was in Portland at the World Domination Summit. I’ve been going for the last few years and its always fun to spend 2 days listening to wildly inspiring speakers & get to connect with lots of my online peers.
This year I challenged myself to set up a Be Your Own Beloved photo walk meet-up which was absolutely the highlight of my weekend (but I’ll be giving that a post unto itself…coming soon).
The speakers are always a wide variety, and this year there was one that stood out as my absolute favourite. Her name is Dee Williams and she runs a company called Portland Alternative Dwellings (helping & inspiring people to build Tiny Houses), and author of the book The Big Tiny.
She was an incredible speaker in the most authentic way and shared a deeply personal story of what brought her to the place in her life where she moved into a little house and invited others to join in and build their own.
Check out the videos on her website to get a sense of the awesomeness of Dee!
As she walked out onto the stage, she held a red blanket in her hands. Soon into the presentation she shared that as she had been writing this speech, she had been putting on her red cape (which was actually an airline blanket). From that moment, I was hooked.
She ended her presentation by asking us to stand up, reach into our pockets and pull out our cape (the invisible sort) and put it on. 2500 people adorning themselves with invisible capes and taking on a superhero pose made me smile so big and left us all feeling more courageous in our paths than before.
Jump to a day later at the final party for WDS. Other than Dee and the photo walk, this was the biggest highlight of the weekend. I had been waiting in the line-up for hot air balloon rides (yes, you read that right) when I felt drawn to just wander on my own for a few minutes to see what else was around the event (as I had bee lined it for the hot air balloon line-up out of sheer unabashed joy).
As I found myself near the stage, I saw that folks were crowding around big boxes and something was being handed out.
They were capes.
Okay, maybe they were supposed to be blankets, but to us, they were capes.
For the next couple hours, we got to be like Dee when she was on stage and wear our capes visibly.
As each person grabbed one, they unfolded it lengthwise and tied the top around their neck, double knotting it to keep it on.
People started coming towards the boxes in droves, saying ‘Where did you get the capes?’
It was in that moment that I realized why I love this event so much.
Because it is downright awesome to be amongst 2500 people who aren’t afraid to wear a cape.
I looooved that we all decided, inspired by Dee, to see the blankets in a different light. Maybe to help us be a bit braver in the moment in a way that would carry on inspiration as we left the event and went back to our own lives.
Back home, I knew I needed to put on my cape and take a self-portrait (cause thats what I do) but also to mark the fact that there is a cape wearer in me too. One that found herself emerging into bravery this weekend.
Did it feel a bit extra vulnerable to be out in public taking selfies wearing a cape? Indeed it was, but thats the kind of bravery I want to invite more of into my work. To keep pushing my limits and getting out of my comfort zone as I’m inviting you to get out of yours too by seeing yourself with kindness through your camera!
So next time I’m in the situation where I have some fear coming up when I’m working on something out of my comfort zone.
I know exactly what I’ll be reaching for to get that little bit braver.
My cape.
P.S. Wanna give it a try next time you feel yourself coming up against a moment where bravery is needed? I highly suspect a tutu or boa might be equally useful in giving us that extra dose of bravery needed!